This thesis develops an analysis of the prevalence and determinants of financial fraud as identified in the Chinese listed firms over the period 1996 to 2007. First, theoretical analysis on the determinants of financial fraud, from its subjective, objective and conditional aspects, provides an understanding of why financial fraud happened as it did.  The conditional aspect (corporate governance mechanisms) is highlighted since it is controllable in reducing the probability of fraudulent reporting.  Data from the Chinese stock market is accessed, organised, and analyzed to support the analysis. Second, the prevalence and nature of fraud uncovered in the supervision of listed companies in Chinese stock exchanges is identified.  From data reported by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the incidence and prevalence of cases of fraud identified through regulation is investigated. I show how fraudulent activity can be categorised, how its nature has evolved over time, how business sectors are differentially prone to fraud, and what modes of fraudulent activity have been recorded. Third, the key interest of this research lies in the investigation of the argument that companies are more, or less, prone to fraudulent reporting by reason of:  Their ownership structure; Their corporate governance characteristics; and/or Their numerical characteristics in financial reporting. 82 fraudulent financial statements from 40 listed companies identified by the China Securities Regulatory Commission are selected as the study sample, and 82 control peers are selected, to correspond to the study sample as closely as possible, regarding the assets size and industries.  Findings challenge the conventional arguments which have been supported based on data from western countries.  Conventional arguments show financial fraud is associated with weakness of governance in western companies (e.g. <i>Beasley et al., 2000</i>) and with patterns of ownership that would indicate reduced agency control by shareholders.  However, my finding reveals that in China ownership concentration is negatively associated with reported fraud; and as for some oft-discussed corporate governance characteristics (e.g. the supervisory board, audit committee, independent directors), the fraud firms and their non-fraud peers are not statistically distinct, suggesting that corporate governance mechanisms that are designed to reduce the probability of financial fraud fail to work in the Chinese market.  The negative results in this research contribute by updating our understanding of the determinants of financial statement fraud; the supervision of China’s equity markets; and whether it can be considered effective in uncovering financial fraud.

This study was conducted to determine the perception of the chief audit executive as head of the internal audit function, on the internal audit activities that should be performed (current and future) within South African companies after which the findings were compared with the international perception in this regard. Data was also obtained on whether internal audit activities were performed inhouse or were outsourced; the importance of the internal audit activities, senior management’s rating of the value added, the internal audit approach followed, and whether the internal audit standards were being complied with. A statistical analysis was performed on data that was obtained from questionnaires and interviews. This study targeted 30 chief audit executives, and to a lesser extent 30 Chief Executive Officers/Chief Financial Officers/Chief Operating Officers, of large South African listed companies. The results prove that chief audit executives perceive themselves as performing their internal audit activities according to the internal audit Standards and that they satisfy the needs and expectations of their companies. The internal audit profession, its clients and internal audit educators may benefit from the study in the planning of future internal audit activities and educational programmes respectively.

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Accompanying material: 1 diskette in pocket (c.1: KAO; c.2: SONY). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, June 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Samuel E. Buttrey, Lyn R. Whitaker. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-148). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Jane L. Reimers, Florida State University, College of Business, Dept. of Accounting. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 15, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

A mere 16 percent of the population enjoys the benefits of private healthcare; medical schemes however remain an important contributor to the South African economy with an annual contribution flow of close to R85 billion per annum. Similar to the international scenario, South African healthcare inflation surpassed consumer price inflation. In addition, the medical schemes industry remains riddled with fraud, this coupled with escalating private healthcare costs remain subsequent threats to the sustainability of the industry. It is reported that service provider fraud has surpassed fraud committed by scheme members. Most medical schemes appear to have policies in place to manage and combat fraud, however transparency in terms of information sharing remains elusive. Of greater concern have been the investigation and management ethicality and endgame of medical schemes in terms of fraud risk management amongst medical practitioners. The research problem states that there is currently no standard fraud investigation and management protocol available for the ethical investigation and management of medical schemes fraud committed by medical practitioners. The literature review demonstrated that there has been a paradigm shift regarding the expectations that society has of the modern corporation and emphasised the inclusive stakeholder model theory in favour of the traditional shareholder dictum: pursuit of profit maximisation at any cost. The research design was done by providing a survey questionnaire to private medical practitioners. The literature review and survey findings highlighted the need for medical schemes to pay greater heed to their ethicality and stakeholder issue management practices. Focus areas for the development of an industry standard fraud investigation and management protocol was recommended.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / (DFAS) vendor payment transactions through Unsupervised Modeling (cluster analysis). Clementine Data Mining software is used to construct unsupervised models of vendor payment data using the K-Means, Two Step, and Kohonen algorithms. Cluster validation techniques are applied to select the most useful model of each type, which are then combined to select candidate records for physical examination by a DFAS auditor. Our unsupervised modeling technique utilizes all the available valid transaction data, much of which is not admitted under the current supervised modeling procedure. Our procedure standardizes and provides rigor to the existing unsupervised modeling methodology at DFAS. Additionally, we demonstrate a new clustering approach called Tree Clustering, which uses Classification and Regression Trees to cluster data with automatic variable selection and scaling. A Recommended SOP for Unsupervised Modeling, detailed explanation of all Clementine procedures, and implementation of the Tree Clustering algorithm are included as appendices. / Major, United States Marine Corps